Steinhoff may be claiming back executive bonuses worth R176 million from these three individuals — South Africa

The three former executive directors of Steinhoff may have to pay back up to R176 million, if the company holds to its threats.

The Steinhoff Group is “giving consideration to reclaiming bonuses paid in the past to certain senior executives” it said in an update to shareholders on Thursday afternoon.That could be rather a large amount of money – just not in the context of the hole in Steinhoff’s books.

Disgraced former CEO Markus Jooste received an annual bonus of €1.98 million in the fifteen months to the end of September 2016 – on top of a “strategic” bonus of €476,000 and a “deferred” bonus of €416,000. In total, Jooste received a bonus of almost €2,9 million, or more than R42 million at today’s currency rates. And that’s on top of his salary of R40 million. In the previous year, his bonus came to more than €3,2 million. If Steinhoff only demands a bonus payback for two years (and the fraud and mismanagement probably stretched back much longer), Jooste alone will have to pay back almost R90 million, at current exchange rate….In total, the three directors received bonuses worth almost €12 million in two years – or R176 million at today’s exchange rates.Although that is not small change, it would not do much to plug the many holes in Steinhoff’s books.

The company on Thursday said it is “reviewing the validity and recoverability of certain “non-South African assets” initially thought to be worth €6 billion – more than R88 billion.It also said it had received “demands” from Firstrand co-founder GT Ferreira and the entities that sold it retailer Tekkie Town, worth a combined €220 million, currently around R3.2 billion.